8 ms·

Amazon has patented a system that would put workers in a cage, on top of a robot

53 points by type0 5y ago

AustinDev 5y ago
This is one of the places the internet meme of 'Wagie Wagie get back in your Cagie' original stemmed from, at least from what I've seen. Given Amazon's treatment of workers I think the bleak outlook isn't totally unwarranted.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  So a cubicle is pretty much the same thing, only usually with somewhat padded walls. Seems legit; getting into this business is a sign one belongs in a padded cell...
- type0 5y ago
  Amazon should trademark the term Wage Cage. At least now it's not been implemented yet, but I would imagine it is very unfulfilling to work at Amazon fulfillment center https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO9VRtrTJwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO9VRtrTJwc
pwnna 5y ago
The cage design is probably objectively pretty bad (I don't want to work in there), but the headline is a bit sensationalist. The idea here is that Amazon has a bunch of robots running around in a massive environment. Safe robot-human interaction in close contact situations is still a research problem. This device is obviously meant for the safety of the operator if a robotics engineers looked at it. I know people don't really like big companies and Amazon, but in this case I think the reporting is a bit over the top. The intention of the system is not to enslave humans. The technology is nowhere near there. If anything, we're enslaved by them because they're constantly broken and we have to go fix them by riding this cage of a robot! > Here, the worker becomes a part of a machinic ballet, held upright in a cage which dictates and constrains their movement. The depiction here is way too sensationalist and eye-roll-inducing. If we want to go there, how is this different from let's say.. a car (or a self-driving car), or even the idea of working for companies to sustain your daily life, especially in person. In any case, I think we can all agree that a mobile safety system like this should have some better industrial design than that diagram.
- danudey 5y ago
  Exactly this. This isn't some kind of roving solitary confinement, it's a safe vehicle for human workers to travel through automated automated-robot-only areas. An Amazon exec posted about it on Twitter saying that they scrapped this idea and replaced it with a vest with a sensor on it that causes automated robots in the vicinity to stop moving (creating a safe zone around the worker). I hate Amazon more than most, but this invention is kinda cool, and also probably not going to get used.
  - lugged 5y ago
    They should really label their packages accordingly so I can differentiate between cagefree packaging and free range worker conditions. I don't mind paying a little more for free range if that's what it takes.
    - josiahpeters 5y ago
      I really enjoyed this comment.
- Buttons840 5y ago
  Like a guard cage that prevents you from sticking your arm into a whirring piece of machinery. Just so happens that the guard is in every direction. Now your in the cage.
- donw 5y ago
  Exactly. Permanently caging workers is two or three iterations down the road.
- hulitu 5y ago
  So they want to enslave our little friends, the robots. We shall raise awareness about this cruelty that happens under our own eyes.
ab_testing 5y ago
They are trying to be defensive about it - but I think it is a good system . They are heading toward a future where warehouses are fully automated and it is dangerous for a human to enter this kind of auotmated warehouse . In that sense , it is not a bad design to protect the human from the worker robots.
- LorenPechtel 5y ago
  Bad idea! That's a commanded design rather than a fail-safe design. Yes, there should be some sort of stop-robot beacon, but you need to shield the worker also. Emergency systems should always fail in the safe direction!
- danudey 5y ago
  They're not really trying to be defensive, so much as they're saying "actually, we found a more practical and more elegant way to solve this problem so we're not gonna do this."
goldenkey 5y ago
Where's the built-in toilet? C'mon Amazon, where's the innovation?!
- CRConrad 5y ago
  The worker brings their oen pee bottle with them, I suppose.
jrootabega 5y ago
You know who else goes in cages? Divers, to protect them from sharks.
shreyshnaccount 5y ago
and the journalist would describe a crane as 'construction companies lock workers in small box at great height, on top of giant robot arm' this type of sensationalist news is annoying at best and harmful at worst
- inostia 5y ago
  Crane is the most apt comparison. My first thought as well.
zardo 5y ago
So they came up with putting a cab on a truck?
quocanh 5y ago
Sensationalist. We put humans into cages when they race Formula 1 (for the same reason as this - protection) and we don't call that dehumanizing.
- nacs 5y ago
  Agreed on the sensationalist title. However, Formula 1 drivers make millions for being in that cage. Amazon workers get a teeny tiny amount compared to that.
  - grayhatter 5y ago
    while true, it's a pretty meaningless observation. F1 drivers aren't in a cage because or related to the amount of money they make. They're in a cage because the alternative is death or dismemberment. just like the Amazon worker sitting atop a performance robot. If that worker gets in the way of the robot the robot's family won't be suing for wrongful death. OH and because we as humans decided a long time ago that pain suffering and death is bad so we generally try to prevent it when possible... which makes me wonder why Amazon is doing it :P
thrower123 5y ago
Looks like the rollcage and windscreens you'd have on any kind of equipment.
LorenPechtel 5y ago
You'll find plenty of examples of safety cages for use in threatening environments. This is just one example that Amazon-bashers keep trying to make into something else.
ekianjo 5y ago
Headline makes it sound they have a plan to do it, but they don't. Pure clickbait in the worst way.
jschlesser 5y ago
Daleks!
blibble 5y ago
aren't these things typical in automated warehouses? https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ww6kc?start=2660 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ww6kc?start=2660 (warning: contains gregg wallace)
- oliwarner 5y ago
  Haha, I was only expecting a little Greg —on the lines of "may contain nuts"— but that was 110%, take-my-shirt-off-and-dive-in buttery, biscuit base.
jjk166 5y ago
Wait until they get a load of the popemobile But in all seriousness, this is the same sort of caging currently put around robots to prevent humans being struck by an unexpected stray movement. While collaborative robots are starting to become more common, the overwhelming majority of industrial robots will go right through a person effortlessly and not even notice they hit anything. While I question whether this would actually work as intended (the caging is designed to keep a weak human out, and is usually placed around a perimeter out of reach of the robot which could likely break through it), the desire for it is sensible. The caging could also be good for the hazards besides the robots, for example loads falling from significant heights as a result of whatever sort of issue the human is in there to deal with.
mensetmanusman 5y ago
I go in my bobcat cage and move dirt. Cages are for safety, ask shark divers.
galkk 5y ago
The article is cheap clickbait. What that journalist will say about soldiers in tank then?
foxyv 5y ago
So... Amazon is inventing Power Loaders from Alien? Neat!
dafoex 5y ago
I guess I'll just add to the growing pile of "this is to stop humans getting decapitated in robot-only zones when retrieving broken robots" shall I? I hate amazon as much as the next guy, but this is sensationalist beyond belief. And old.

53 points by type0 5y ago

This is one of the places the internet meme of 'Wagie Wagie get back in your Cagie' original stemmed from, at least from what I've seen. Given Amazon's treatment of workers I think the bleak outlook isn't totally unwarranted.

CRConrad 5y ago
So a cubicle is pretty much the same thing, only usually with somewhat padded walls. Seems legit; getting into this business is a sign one belongs in a padded cell...
type0 5y ago
Amazon should trademark the term Wage Cage. At least now it's not been implemented yet, but I would imagine it is very unfulfilling to work at Amazon fulfillment center https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO9VRtrTJwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO9VRtrTJwc

pwnna 5y ago

The cage design is probably objectively pretty bad (I don't want to work in there), but the headline is a bit sensationalist. The idea here is that Amazon has a bunch of robots running around in a massive environment. Safe robot-human interaction in close contact situations is still a research problem. This device is obviously meant for the safety of the operator if a robotics engineers looked at it. I know people don't really like big companies and Amazon, but in this case I think the reporting is a bit over the top. The intention of the system is not to enslave humans. The technology is nowhere near there. If anything, we're enslaved by them because they're constantly broken and we have to go fix them by riding this cage of a robot! > Here, the worker becomes a part of a machinic ballet, held upright in a cage which dictates and constrains their movement. The depiction here is way too sensationalist and eye-roll-inducing. If we want to go there, how is this different from let's say.. a car (or a self-driving car), or even the idea of working for companies to sustain your daily life, especially in person. In any case, I think we can all agree that a mobile safety system like this should have some better industrial design than that diagram.

danudey 5y ago
Exactly this. This isn't some kind of roving solitary confinement, it's a safe vehicle for human workers to travel through automated automated-robot-only areas. An Amazon exec posted about it on Twitter saying that they scrapped this idea and replaced it with a vest with a sensor on it that causes automated robots in the vicinity to stop moving (creating a safe zone around the worker). I hate Amazon more than most, but this invention is kinda cool, and also probably not going to get used.
- lugged 5y ago
  They should really label their packages accordingly so I can differentiate between cagefree packaging and free range worker conditions. I don't mind paying a little more for free range if that's what it takes.
  - josiahpeters 5y ago
    I really enjoyed this comment.
Buttons840 5y ago
Like a guard cage that prevents you from sticking your arm into a whirring piece of machinery. Just so happens that the guard is in every direction. Now your in the cage.
donw 5y ago
Exactly. Permanently caging workers is two or three iterations down the road.
hulitu 5y ago
So they want to enslave our little friends, the robots. We shall raise awareness about this cruelty that happens under our own eyes.

ab_testing 5y ago

They are trying to be defensive about it - but I think it is a good system . They are heading toward a future where warehouses are fully automated and it is dangerous for a human to enter this kind of auotmated warehouse . In that sense , it is not a bad design to protect the human from the worker robots.

LorenPechtel 5y ago
Bad idea! That's a commanded design rather than a fail-safe design. Yes, there should be some sort of stop-robot beacon, but you need to shield the worker also. Emergency systems should always fail in the safe direction!
danudey 5y ago
They're not really trying to be defensive, so much as they're saying "actually, we found a more practical and more elegant way to solve this problem so we're not gonna do this."

goldenkey 5y ago

Where's the built-in toilet? C'mon Amazon, where's the innovation?!

CRConrad 5y ago
The worker brings their oen pee bottle with them, I suppose.

jrootabega 5y ago

You know who else goes in cages? Divers, to protect them from sharks.

shreyshnaccount 5y ago

and the journalist would describe a crane as 'construction companies lock workers in small box at great height, on top of giant robot arm' this type of sensationalist news is annoying at best and harmful at worst

inostia 5y ago
Crane is the most apt comparison. My first thought as well.

zardo 5y ago

So they came up with putting a cab on a truck?

quocanh 5y ago

Sensationalist. We put humans into cages when they race Formula 1 (for the same reason as this - protection) and we don't call that dehumanizing.

nacs 5y ago
Agreed on the sensationalist title. However, Formula 1 drivers make millions for being in that cage. Amazon workers get a teeny tiny amount compared to that.
- grayhatter 5y ago
  while true, it's a pretty meaningless observation. F1 drivers aren't in a cage because or related to the amount of money they make. They're in a cage because the alternative is death or dismemberment. just like the Amazon worker sitting atop a performance robot. If that worker gets in the way of the robot the robot's family won't be suing for wrongful death. OH and because we as humans decided a long time ago that pain suffering and death is bad so we generally try to prevent it when possible... which makes me wonder why Amazon is doing it :P

thrower123 5y ago

Looks like the rollcage and windscreens you'd have on any kind of equipment.

LorenPechtel 5y ago

You'll find plenty of examples of safety cages for use in threatening environments. This is just one example that Amazon-bashers keep trying to make into something else.

ekianjo 5y ago

Headline makes it sound they have a plan to do it, but they don't. Pure clickbait in the worst way.

jschlesser 5y ago

Daleks!

blibble 5y ago

aren't these things typical in automated warehouses? https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ww6kc?start=2660 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7ww6kc?start=2660 (warning: contains gregg wallace)

oliwarner 5y ago
Haha, I was only expecting a little Greg —on the lines of "may contain nuts"— but that was 110%, take-my-shirt-off-and-dive-in buttery, biscuit base.

jjk166 5y ago

Wait until they get a load of the popemobile But in all seriousness, this is the same sort of caging currently put around robots to prevent humans being struck by an unexpected stray movement. While collaborative robots are starting to become more common, the overwhelming majority of industrial robots will go right through a person effortlessly and not even notice they hit anything. While I question whether this would actually work as intended (the caging is designed to keep a weak human out, and is usually placed around a perimeter out of reach of the robot which could likely break through it), the desire for it is sensible. The caging could also be good for the hazards besides the robots, for example loads falling from significant heights as a result of whatever sort of issue the human is in there to deal with.

mensetmanusman 5y ago

I go in my bobcat cage and move dirt. Cages are for safety, ask shark divers.

galkk 5y ago

The article is cheap clickbait. What that journalist will say about soldiers in tank then?

foxyv 5y ago

So... Amazon is inventing Power Loaders from Alien? Neat!

dafoex 5y ago

I guess I'll just add to the growing pile of "this is to stop humans getting decapitated in robot-only zones when retrieving broken robots" shall I? I hate amazon as much as the next guy, but this is sensationalist beyond belief. And old.